Old-Fashioned Control Systems Make U.S. Power Grids, Water Plants a Hacking Target

Old-Fashioned Control Systems Make U.S. Power Grids, Water Plants a Hacking Target

Critical infrastructure is at risk of a cyberattack because of systems that haven't kept pace with Internet threats.
U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta warned this week that successful attacks have been made on computer control systems of American electricity and water plants and transportation systems. Panetta didn't give details about those incidents, but he said they showed that foreign nations or extremist groups could use such tactics to derail trains or shut down power grids. Computer-security experts say those claims are plausible—even if the scenario is not necessarily likely to happen—because of the outdated technology used to operate critical infrastructure.http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429611/old-fashioned-control-systems-make-us-power-grids/?ref=rss